Book Club

Book Club

A quick recommendation for an interesting discussion, the radio podcast
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/podcast/openbook
15/04/2012 - Mariella talks to Turkish novelist Elif Shafak about her latest book Honour which highlights the issue of honour killings in the Kurdish Turkish community across two continents. The programme also looks at novels for children of eight to twelve years.

13 months ago

Book Club

Tuesday 20 March at 21:00 (European Time / GMT +1) to discuss "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Euginides.

Please could you confirm if this time and date suits. Many thanks!

14 months ago

Karen Morrow  ›  Book Club

Very much looking forward to reading this - I hope it's as good as 'Middlesex' was. Any of the dates suggested should be fine.

15 months ago

Book Club

The next book up for discussion is Jeffrey Euginides and his Pulizer Prize winning novel, "The Marriage Plot" (2011).

A brief plot summary:
The cast of characters consists of bright, go-getting young Ivy Leaguers who meet at Brown University's semiotics class. It follows their love entanglements and spiritual crises during the early 1980s as they pursue and escape each other through a variety of colourful locations that stretch from Cape Cod to Monte Carlo to Calcutta.
Madeleine, at first the ingenue, is an English major from a prosperous Wasp family with a nice home in the suitably twee-sounding town of Prettybrook, New Jersey. Mitchell and Leonard, the men... More she must choose between (I'm simplifying, but it boils down to this), come from humbler backgrounds and study religion and science respectively. Mitchell, well-behaved and presentable, plays the Mr Knightley role: patiently besotted with Madeleine, who flirts with him occasionally but prefers to think of him as her treasured friend. Leonard is the wild card: a 6ft 3in charismatic loner who lives in squalor, writes brilliantly (so we're assured), is irresistible to women, and savagely self-destructive.
Framing and shaping this story is a sustained inquiry into the great themes of love and marriage, and the question of how they might be rescued for contemporary literature and in real-life.

I would like to suggest a date towards the end of March for this session. Could I say either Monday 20th/ Wednesday 22nd March or Friday 23rd March? Please could everyone get back to me to rule out dates you CAN NOT attend, and we can work it from there...A big international participation would be fabulous....so..............
if you haven't read "The Marriage Plot" yet, I can highly recommend you order it now......in time for our next Book Club Session on Skilio.

15 months ago

Rebecca Garnett likes this.

Rebecca Garnett Great precis! I loved this book, and really look forward to discussing it. Any of those dates are fine with me. Thanks Victoria.

15 months ago

Kathleen Garnett Hi Victoria: Sounds great. Any of the dates could work for me though I have a preference for Wed 20/03. Havn't read the book yet - a bit swamped at the moment but am looking forward to starting it.

15 months ago

Rebecca Garnett  ›  Book Club

Happy New Year everyone - hope you had a great Christmas with plenty of opportunities to sneak off and curl up with a good book ;) I'm halfway through Jeffrey Eugenides 'The Marriage Plot' which is up for our next book club discussion - anyone else started reading it yet? I'm loving it! There's a nice interview with the author via The Economist here: http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/11/qa-jeffrey-eugenides

16 months ago

Rhona Edwards  ›  Book Club

I think that we may have missed the boat on discussing children's books for Christmas given that no doubt everyone interested in it, is madly wrapping presents and taking children to visit santa/participate in school nativity play/make cards for grand parents etc. Of course, if anyone still wants to do this this week let me know, but if we are all busy I just want to leave one very strong recommendation out there for anyone with toddlers....., 'Stick Man' by Julia Donaldson. Fun story, great rhyming and rhythmical story that is superbly illustrated and even involves Father Christmas himself.

17 months ago

Rebecca Garnett  ›  Book Club

Hi lovely Book-clubbers - OK, I went ahead and ordered 'The Marriage Plot' as I really wanted to read it anyway. If anyone fancy's reading it too, perhaps we can run a BookClub session about it in the New Year :)
Here is the Amazon link: http://amzn.to/sykq5q

17 months ago

Rhona Edwards  ›  Book Club

Since having children I no longer read fast enough to turn books around quickly enough to be a Book Club regular, but I do find that I have become increasingly more interested in children's books. With Christmas fast approaching I am turning my thoughts to which titles to put under the tree for my three year old twins. So..... would anyone be interested in having a Book Club session one evening, with a glass of your favourite tipple in hand, to talk about children's books that you would recommend? Anyone interested please let me know and I will set up a session. Thanks!

17 months ago

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Sam Critchley Hi Rhona, I definitely agree with you on reading fast enough... if I'm given enough notice I can usually get through a book or so a month, but I do need to make sure I purchase it in plenty of time.

Great idea on the children's books. How about people post some of their recommendations in the discussion thread here as well and then we could even come up with some kind of Top 10 in a Skilio session. We can then share both the discussion thread and the Skilio session with our... More Facebook friends - that would be pretty handy for a lot of people I know.

Thanks, Sam

17 months ago

Rhona Edwards Great idea Sam!
So as a starter for ten, two of my favourites are:
The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson - a stunning journey around the world on the back of a whale.
Pippi Longstocking - tales of a defiant, quirky, fun loving nine year old.

17 months ago

Rebecca Garnett Great idea - I can do Tuesday evening after 8.30pm EU time or Thursday evening, same time. Does that work for anyone else?

17 months ago

Rhona Edwards Thursday evening would work for me. Anyone else?

17 months ago

Rebecca Garnett That would be fine for me Rhona - sounds great

17 months ago

Rebecca Garnett  ›  Book Club

My Top 10 Children's books (and also great Christmas present books) are:
- In all time first place: The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgreen - (age around 8 - 10) Two brothers go through to a magical medieval land when they die, and fight dragons and wicked knights to save their kingdom. Its a book that is both simple in its story and profound in its message, no matter which age you are. One of those that will stay with you as you grow up and can't wait to pass on - I remember being really excited when my nephew was old enough for me to give him a copy.
- The Great Ghost Rescue by Eva Ibbotson - (age around 7 - 10) Humphrey the Horrible is a ghost that lives in a... More haunted Castle with his sister Wailing Winifred, mother, father and brother all of whom are spooks of some description. One day, some developers buy up Craggyford Castle to turn it into a Hotel / Nightclub and the Ghosts must leave - but where will they find sanctuary?
- The Ottoline Series by Chris Riddell - (from Age 6) Fabulous children's detective books, Esmees favourite - Miss Ottoline Brown, an exceptionally inquisitive Mistress of Disguise, and her partner in crime, Mr Munroe, a small hairy creature from the bogs of Norway, live in a stylish apartment in Big City. They are always solving some mystery or another. Great pictures and a superb sense of humour
- The Hidden House by Martin Waddell and Angela Barrett (from age 5) Three wooden dolls sit in the window of a forgotten house in the woods. As time passes the house gets more and more hidden by nature until one day a young family come and rescue it. The girls love this book - its full of tenderness, and magical in its telling. The illustrations by Angela Barret are gorgeous.
- Oscar Wildes The Happy Prince illustrated by Jane Ray - you probably all know the story of the The Happy Prince, and Jane Ray's illustrations make this a real joy.
- Can You Catch a Mermaid? by Jane Ray - (Age 4 / 5 onwards) If your children love all things Mermaid like mine, then they will love this sweet story about a young girl who befriends a mermaid that can't get back into the sea. Again, Jane Ray's illustrations are bewitching!
- Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (Age 2 - 6) A really quirky and amusing book, and a firm favourite of the kids. Requires a lot of goofing around by the parents as they read it to their offspring, but definitely worth it!
- The Alfie books by Shirley Hughes - (Age 2 - 5) Classic books about a little boy called Alfie and his baby sister Annie-Rose. Gentle books that really appealed to our kids when they were little and were treasured by their Mummy and Daddy too
- The Runaway Dinner by Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingham (age 2 - 6) A boy called Banjo is about to eat his supper, when the sausage - Mervin - jumps off the plate hotly pursued by knife, fork, french fires and peas. Funny and surreal enough to be a real hit with kids.
- The Wild Swans Hans Christian Andersen retold by Naomi Lewis and illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert. Magical drawings and an even more magical story. An book of beauty that tells the story of a young princess searching for her 12 brothers that were turned into swans by their wicked stepmother when her father remarried.
------- I have copies of all the above apart from The Great Ghost Rescue, and am happy to show them to you over the Skilio Session if anyone is interested in seeing inside the book or hearing an extract :)

17 months ago

Sam Critchley  ›  Book Club

Here are a few, I'll have to look through the bookshelf at home for some others:
- All our children love anything by Julia Donaldson (I think we've got them all now thanks to a recent gift), with Tabby McTat and The Smartest Giant in Town being the current favourites, and the Gruffalo is of course perennial.
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes was beloved by our daughter Isabella for a while.
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is fantastic for children between 18 months and 2 1/2 or 3 years old.
- At the moment I'm reading my daughter (5 1/2) a book called Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. It's very traditional, and perhaps slightly advanced (so I'm having to... More explain a few words to her), but she finds it completely gripping!

17 months ago

Rebecca Garnett Swallows and Amazons will forever remind me of my Dad as a young boy! It was his favourite book. We'll need a description of it from you in the Skilio Session Sam, as I have always wanted to read it to the girls, but didn't know when was a good time...

17 months ago

Lale Inceoglu  ›  Book Club

Firstly, I want to say that I love Rhona's idea to share children's book ideas...I have an almost 3 year old and so would definitely be interested. One of our favourites is a Margaret Atwood book called 'Up in the Tree' which she wrote and illustrated herself in 1978. Another is Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty. We love anything by Oliver Jeffers too and our favourite Julia Donaldson has been Squash and a Squeeze - haven't tried the Snail and the Whale though - but I will do!

Regarding adult reads, I'd also love to read The Marriage Plot. I haven't read anything by him since Middlesex, which I loved, so it's probably about time.

The one I mentioned was Elif Safak's... More 'The Bastard of Istanbul' and there is also 'The Forty Rules of Love' which is based on the manuscript of the 13th century Sufi Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. I haven't read it but it sounds good. You can check them out
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=forty+rules+of+love&sprefix=forty+r

Lx

17 months ago

Rebecca Garnett The Bastard of Istanbul and the Forty Rules of Love sound great too.
This is going to be tough - so many good books!

Shall we make a call on which one we tackle next, fellow book lovers, so that we all have time to read the books? Victoria - how about you list the suggested books and we state which one we most want to read first?

17 months ago

Book Club

That's so funny - I am reading Swallows and Amazons to my 2 girls at the moment.

17 months ago

Book Club

Good idea Rhona ! My daughters 6 and 9 year olds have been asking to start up a book exchange/book club for ages...and I've done nothing about it!
Book suggestions I have for 3 - 5 year olds:
- The "Mog" stories (about a cheeky cat) by Judith Kerr, she also wrote "The Tiger Who came to Tea"
- "A Tale of Two Kitties" by Liz Pichon. Really fun, really clever and it won several children's book awards.
- "Charlie Cook's Favourite Book" by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffer
- "The Magic Doctor" by Val Biro
- "The World of Winnie the Pooh" by A.A. Milne (before Disney got their sticky paws on it and made it... More unrecognisable!) A collection of stories, verse and hums......
- "Threadbear" by Mick Inkpen
- "Revolting Rhymes" by Roald Dahl
- Anything by Richard Scarry!
- The Usbourne book of Fairy Tales

For older children, that's a whole new chapter. Maybe we could cover that another time...?!

17 months ago

Book Club

I really like Jeffrey Eugenides and would relish reading The Marriage Plot!
Also I would like to suggest William Boyd - either The Blue Afternoon, or Any Human Heart.
In the biography dept. I loved Claire Tomalin's "Katherine Mansfield - A Secret Life" and also Mansfield's short stories.

18 months ago

Book Club

Thanks to everyone who took part in Book Club last night. I really enjoyed the discussions and hope you all did too.
Please post on this Wall your recommendations for the next good read.
Open to everyone. Don't be shy!

18 months ago

Rebecca Garnett Thank you Victoria for hosting the book club - it was so much fun. How amazing to have members dialing in from Istanbul, London, Brussels and South West France - I found it fascinating that we all come from different locations and rythms of life across the globe and yet had so many similar views on A Week in December. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

18 months ago

Rebecca Garnett Suggestions from my end:
Jeffrey Eugenides (author of Middlesex and Virgin Suicides) has just published a new novel called The Marriage Plot. See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marriage-Plot-Jeffrey-Eugenides/dp/0007441290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322300754&sr=8-1

I loved the sound of the book Lale mentioned too...

18 months ago